


Crass poetry

by Beyond_now_and_into_the_crazy



Category: Death Note (Anime & Manga)
Genre: M/M, Yotsuba Arc
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-06
Updated: 2017-11-06
Packaged: 2019-01-30 04:36:14
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,335
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12646233
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Beyond_now_and_into_the_crazy/pseuds/Beyond_now_and_into_the_crazy
Summary: The words trace over his arm, loops and scribbles a puzzle he's sure he can solve.Could, if Light would stop staring at him for a second.





	Crass poetry

**Author's Note:**

> I still have no clue what the ever loving fuck I'm doing with my life. Enjoy!  
> (Also: Prompt was taken off some blog on hellhole.net- I mean tumblr. I modified it a bit because, well, uh, I wanted to.)

L doesn’t notice it at first. Unlike most of his realizations, it hits him slowly.

                They’re sitting at taskforce headquarters again, Light pressed up against his side, showing him some files on the Yotsuba company and their recent sale stocks. It’s been a long day; no new leads and nothing even remotely relating to Kira, just another day sitting around and hoping the loose ends will ties themselves, which he knows both him and Light hate.

Fingers are clicking on his laptop, one hand on the keyboard as Light pulls up statistics next to him, smiling a bit at him as he does. It’s suspicious; Light doesn’t _smile,_ he smirks.

                It takes him a while to realize that Light’s hand is touching his, warm fingers running over his cold arm distractedly. Which again doesn’t make sense. Light doesn’t do distracted, either. And he’s still smiling, and it’s not _right._ His lips shouldn’t form that curve that way; it looks too happy, too _innocent._ (Which he’s not, there’s a 0.01 percent chance and it’s getting slimmer every time L bothers to think about it)

It takes him a minute or two to realize through the jumble of numbers on his laptop and the ring of Light’s words in his ears that there’s a pattern to the way Light’s fingers are tracing over his arm, warm skin breaking cold, repeating the same swerves and loops over and over again.

Nails slide against his skin, up down, loops, up again, down… _What’s he doing?_

                _Maybe he’s trying to write a code to communicate with a bug hooked up by the second Kira to communicate some sort of message? But no… If he was doing that, he wouldn’t be writing on my arm, would he? Maybe he’s trying to poison me? Cut my skin and inject something? But he wouldn’t do that, it’d reveal him easily, and Kira’s nowhere near that desperate, he’s too smart…_

_This doesn’t make any sense…_

“Ryuuzaki? Are you alright?”

                Light stares at him, eyes wide, head tilted with concern. A perfect picture of something he’s not.

“I’m… Fine.” He says, looking back to the screen, staring and trying to put the number on the screen into proper order through the blur of exhaustion, put the thought of Light’s odd pattern to the back of his mind, where it should belong. But for reasons that he claims are due to the Kira investigation, it doesn’t stay there.

                It keeps happening throughout the day too; when he’s eating cake and drops the fork and Light offers to pick it up for him, and watches him through honey-brown eyes as he eats his slice of cake, distractedly staring at him with something unreadable in his eyes. Or when Soichiro comes in to tell Light how his mother and sister are doing, asks L how the case is going, if and when his son will no longer be a suspect. It’s a shame, because he doesn’t know that this will only end when one of them is dead.

L is almost ready to actually ask Light by the time Light drags him into bed at one in the morning, demanding that he be allowed at least to get _some_ sleep, dammit.

                “Are you okay?” Light says as he sits down in the bed, pulling the blankets over his chest and leaning his fingers over to trace that agonizing pattern on his arm again. He’s looking up at him with concern, and _no that isn’t right either,_ but he’s still doing it, so L just sits there and stares.

Stares and stares until his eyes widen and it finally clicks.

Light traces _I love you_ over his arm again, just registering the gaze that L is sending his way. He’s still smiling a bit, but there’s a furrow in his brow that almost resembles concern, _and concern is often a sign of love isn’t it?_

But it’s a mistake, there’s no doubt about it. Light doesn’t love him- Kira doesn’t love anyone, only justice and himself. But is Light really-

_Of course he is. It’s obvious, the way he acted… But it’s different now, isn’t it? Maybe something has changed?_

“No.” L says, possibly to himself.

                “Why? Is it the case again? I swear we’ll catch Kira, I know you think I’m-“ Light’s still looking at him like that, hand sliding up his arm to touch his shoulder- _That’s a trick manipulators often use to trick their victims,_ his brain reminds him unhelpfully, and he knows it’s true but that doesn’t mean he’s actually listening to it as he stares at Light, tilts his head to mirror that expression of concern, light and pretty and oh-so- _false._

Light stops talking, going quiet with the sudden proximity, brows furrowing as L looks at him, searches those wide eyes for something, _anything,_ that could show the truth behind that obvious lie.

                There’s nothing. Maybe some confusion, but nothing smug, nothing imperfect, nothing _real._ It’s too pretty a painting, there’s obviously scratches somewhere on the canvas.

Two can play that game, he supposes as he presses nails into Light’s arm (The one with the chain on it, of course), writing the words a few times over in sugary-sweet cursive.

                “Oh.” Light says softly, gazing up at him with surprise ( _Or is it? Perhaps he calculated all this and is simply playing a part… lying….)_

And maybe those words are a lie, but the way hands brush through his hair isn’t, and so he settles for it. Settles, and doesn’t allow all those wild thoughts of _Maybe it isn’t him_ and _Maybe he’s telling the truth_ and _Maybe I am too_ , focuses on the way those warm lips feel on his, how that unnatural smiles curves against his lips and feels almost right and how the chain binding their wrists does too. Light grabs him by the collar, pulls him down so he has to put aside his laptop and just _look_ at him, knees braced on either side of his hips and _god he’s almost beautiful when he’s not trying to kill me._

_(He’s even more beautiful when he is, though.)_

A hand tugs him further down until their lips meet again, and it’s odd to see Light Yagami of all people inhale so sharply when he presses a knee between his legs and tangles fingers in brown hair, watch him stare a bit before sliding hands under his shirt and pulling it off, kissing his collarbone with a bit more teeth than necessary and pressing those words into his arms until it hurts. Maybe it’ll leave scars tomorrow, he thinks when he pushes Light back onto the pillows and kisses his eyelids, the place where the light meets dark. He’s almost surprised at the little gasps Light makes, how he looks so innocent when he kisses.

                It doesn’t take long until the rest of their clothes lay strewn on the bedroom floor, buckles coming loose and kisses turning harsh with want, or maybe it’s need. (Neither of them can tell.)

And L still can’t tell when Light falls asleep, legs tangled in the sheets and a small smile on his face. He’s suspected Light of many things, but of love is not one of them.

( _He is suspicious of himself too, suspicious of whether or not he’d fall for Light, suspicious of whether or not those wide eyes and pretty smile are enough to make him guilty, suspicious of the chain that clinks when he picks up his clothes and slowly puts them back on, gaze turned to the window, lost in thought.)_

He is still unsure of his suspicion in the morning, when he wakes up and traces those words again on almost pale skin.

                _I love you, Light Yagami._

_Kira._

It’s not true, of course; they’re both liars and L knows it, even if Light doesn’t.

                But there’s no one to say he’s wrong; Light’s asleep and there’s no one else who matters enough to tell him differently.


End file.
